The Centaur
by Lilly-Nix
Summary: Summery: Something saved the Potters at the last second, but when they escaped, Harry was transported to the forests by Hogwarts. Now alone in the Forbidden Forest, what will happen to Harry? No slash
1. Chapter 1

Summery: Something saved the Potters at the last second, but when they escaped, Harry was transported to the forests by Hogwarts. Now alone in the Forbidden Forest, what will happen to Harry?

An: My newest story. Enjoy.

Chapter 1 Godric's Hollow

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"Lily! Take Harry and run!" a desperate James Potter yelled to his wife without taking his eyes off the shuttering doorknob, the spell to block any unlocking charm would hold now but not for long. He heard her run upstairs with Harry to the nursery.

'Please let them get out alive' He prayed to any God listening as the door exploded in a shower of splinters, and in walked his worst fear. Voldemort.

There was a smirk on his face as he raised his wand once again, unleashing an unknown spell. James dogged and shot out a stunner, Voldemort put up a shield and the spell bounced harmlessly away.

"Is that the best you can do, Potter?" Voldemort mocked and sent another spell, one that James recognized, a bone shattering curse. He threw up a shield but it wasn't strong enough and the spell smashed through, hitting his wand arm.

"You are beaten Potter. Give up your son and I will let you live."

"NEVER!" James said defiantly.

"Very well then, good bye Potter, we will never meet again. "AVADA KEDAVA!" he shouted the green light flying toward him, James jumped to the side barley dogging the spell, clutching his wand in his left hand.

Breathing heavily he managed to shoot a cutting hex at the stunned Dark Lord cutting his cheek. That made him angry.

"WORMTAIL, SNAPE! MALFOY!" he shouted, the three men walked into the room, "Restrain him! Malfoy find the girl!" James eyes widened as he saw Peter.

"Peter?" he said disbelievingly, "Peter?" he repeated as both him and Snape grabbed both of his arms, Snape held his broken arm surprisingly gently, but Peter grabbed his other arm roughly, giving an evil chuckle.

"How does it feel to be the powerless one?" he said with a smirk, "To feel weak and abandoned?" James said nothing as he looked over to the stairs were Malfoy was walking up.

He looked over to Snape, who looked guilty.

"I'm sorry Potter." Snape whispered. As the Dark Lord aimed his wand at James heart.

"Any last words Potter!" He snarled his cheek bleeding slightly. James looked over at Peter, "I trusted you, I gave you the power to protect us and you betrayed us, Peter, I hope Sirius rips you apart!" He snarled.

Voldemort chuckled, "Most are begging me for death by now. I admire your courage Potter, but courage wont save you now, Avada-" A loud trilling filled the house, a phoenix song!

James heart filled with hope. Had Dumbledore sent his phoenix? Voldemort hissed something and clawed at his ears as if the song was burning his ears, Peter was too.

Snape looked at them surprised, then turned to James, "I don't know what's happening, but that song wont last forever, we have to get out of here."

"How do I know I can trust you?" James asked.

"The fact that I'm not on the floor right now, lets go!" James nodded and both men rushed up to the second floor seeing Lucius on the floor, and a passed out Lily on the floor blood pooling around her head, a sleeping baby laying next to her.

James ran over to her, and picked her up, leaving Snape to hold Harry.

"I'm trusting you with my son Snape. Please get him out of here." Snape looked at the child in his arms and nodded, he looked back at James. "Consider that life debt repaid." James nodded and pulled out two Portkeys, and handed one to Snape, "This will take you to Hogwarts, I will meet you there." James nodded and Portkeyed out. Hopping he made the right decision.

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Just as James left the song stopped, and an angry voice echoed through the house, Voldemort's voice. Snape pulled out the Portkey and was about to activate it, when it was blasted out of his hand.

Lucius stood there blood dripping out of his ears eyes screwed up in furry.

"Traitor!" He growled out and sent a Crucio at him, but Severus was faster than him, he pulled out his wand with (difficulty because of Harry) and managed to put a binding spell on Lucius.

He went for the Portkey again but he was hit in the legs with a leg locker curse, he turned and saw Wormtail standing there with Voldemort behind him.

"Well done, Wormtail." he turned to Severus, "Give me the boy Severus." Severus shook his head and held the sleeping boy closer. Voldemort's face twisted in anger and the lights in the house dimmed.

"Do not test me Severus, give me the boy!" Severus shook his head again, and lunged for the Portkey, but before he could get there Voldemort used the dreaded killing curse.

Time seamed to slow down. The curse left the wand and started for Severus and Harry, Severus shut his eyes, so this is how he was going to die. A sudden trilling filled the room and a black phoenix came into the room in a white burst of flame.

It took the curse dead on an exploded into a cloud of ashes, Voldemort snarled in furry and cast the curse again, another phoenix appeared in the room, this one was white, and appeared in a black burst of flame, and again the curse hit the bird making another cloud of ashes.

The ashes from the white phoenix joining with the ashes of the black phoenix and made a small tornado of ashes that surrounded Severus and Harry, Severus felt something attach itself to his mind and a burning on his forehead, the baby in his arms, now awake wailed in pain and shock, a cut on his forehead.

The tornado grew in size and Severus felt something warm surrounding him and then, nothing.

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Voldemort was furious as he saw the man and baby disappear, his prey had escaped! But the tornado that had remained was worrying him it was turning a green color, killing curse green! and was headed right toward him!

He put up the strongest shielding charm he knew but when the tornado hit it shattered through the shield like glass and ripped Lord Voldemort from his body, it was one of the most painful experiences of his life, and he never wanted to feel that pain again.

An explosion blew the house up, the shock of Magical backlash. Voldemort's soul flew through the area before he possessed the body of a snake, he would live, he would comeback.

He hissed in anger as he slithered away to recover.

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Wormtail had left the house when the tornado first appeared, and took Lucius with him. If he had left Voldemort's right hand man behind he would have been in trouble.

He watched in horror as the house exploded and a wave of magic washed over him, making him shiver in fright, Lucius opened his eyes in time to see the house explode, and felt the magical backlash.

When everything was calm again Wormtail and Lucius went back into the destroyed house looking for their master. Wormtail looked down into the rubble and saw something gleam.

He reached down and picked it up, it was the dark lords wand.

Lucius looked over at the wand. His eyes widened. He quickly pulled back his sleeve to see a very light Darkmark almost gone.

"He can't be dead," he heard Lucius mumble, a siren sounded in the distance and that made them both start to move.

"Wormtail, get out of here and for Salazar's sake hide yourself! I will tell the other Deatheaters that the Dark Lord is dead," he heard a CRACK close by, "Go the Auror's are coming!"

He disappeared with a CRACK of his own, before he could leave a very panicked Sirius ran over, he took one look at the house and let out a sob, he looked over at Wormtail.

"YOU!'' he snarled and leapt for him, he grabbed Wormtail just as he Apprated (Sp?) out to a street near his small house, Wormtail pushed Sirius away and rand a few feet away before shouting out.

"How could you sell out Lily and James to Voldemort Sirius!" a group of muggles stopped when they heard Wormtail's shouting. Sirius looked confused for a minute before pulling out his wand, "I didn't do anything you trait-" an explosion stopped anything that Sirius was about to say. Wormtail realized that he had used the Dark Lord's wand, he put it away and used his own wand to cast a tickling charm on Sirius.

While everyone was still blinded Wormtail used a severing charm on his finger and let it drop to the ground and he quickly transformed into a rat and disappeared down into the sewers, he would have to find a place to stay now, he ran through the sewers his finger a mere bloody stump.

At least he was free. But he had to get out of this place soon, the smell of blood would attract other, less friendly rats.

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Sirius watched as Wormtail blew up half the street killing every one nearby, then casting a tickling charm on him making him roar with laughter, he was powerless to stop it.

We then watched the traitorous rat cut off his finger, transform and disappear into the sewers, just as he left Auror's started Apprateing in. A group of newer recruits and a few seniors that he recognized from his own group and a few he didn't recognize.

Some of the newer recruits took one look at the mess and threw up, the seniors of the team looked at the seen with disgust. Sirius still laughing attracted their attention, some looked surprised. Others shocked.

Out of the group of nine only the three seniors approached.

"Sirius? What happened?" Sirius couldn't stop laughing, The Auror's looked at his wand in his hand and their faces turned from concern to shock.

"Sirius… please tell me you didn't do this." Sirius laughed even more crazily then before, he was desperately trying to speak but he couldn't even get out a word to cancel the spell.

"Sirius, I hate to say this but you are under arrest for murder, anything you say can and will be used against you in the court of law," Sirius felt them pry his wand out of his hands and place magic blocking handcuffs on his wrists, the rest of what the Auror was saying was almost blocked out by Sirius's insane laughter.

He was going to Azkaban for a crime he didn't commit, howling in laugher (or was that agony?) all the way.

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James watched as Madam Pomfrey fussed over Lily, she only had a slight concussion from taking a stunner to the head and the jolt of hitting the floor, he was tolled she would be fine.

But he wouldn't believe that until she opened her eyes, but the other thing that worried him was the fact that Snape hadn't turned up, he shouldn't be taking this long to arrive.

Had he betrayed him? No, he didn't collapse when the phoenix song started, and Dumbledore trusted him. But were was he!

Dumbledore had arrived soon after they appeared, and after getting James to talk he said that Snape had come to him just minutes earlier telling him of the attack. Apparently, he was their spy in the Dark Lord's ranks.

A burst of white fire in the middle of the room drew his attention away from his wife's pale face. The flames disappeared as soon as they came and laying in the middle of the room was Severus Snape.

Dumbledore looked surprised at his entrance and ran over to him James close behind him. He saw a bundle on his chest, at first he thought it was Harry but when he got closer he saw a large bird.

Its wings were spread in a protective matter across the mans chest and its claws were dug into his shirt, he had a feeling the bird wouldn't move until Snape was awake, the birds head was laid on his chest and it was panting like it was exhausted.

"A phoenix!" Dumbledore said startled.

"But where is Harry?" Dumbledore looked at James, "We will have to wait until Severus awakens to ask, while we wait we will have to check that cut on his forehead."

That was when James noticed a fresh cut on Snape's forehead, it was oddly heaped, it looked like the black part of the yin and yang symbol. He watched as the Mediwitch carefully levitated Snape to the bed besides Lily's, and his worry was increased tenfold.

Where was his son? Where was Harry.

An owl flew through an open window and ran into Dumbledore it was hooting with alarm, Dumbledore quickly untied the letter from the owls leg. He opened it and looked it over. The normal twinkle in his eye was gone.

He looked over at James gravely, "James, Sirius has been arrested."

"What!?!"

"13 counts of murder, 12 muggles and one wizard."

"Who was the wizard?"

"Peter."

"What possessed him to kill all those people?" James asked in a daze, Dumbledore sighed, "I do not know but we will find out." James nodded, but then hesitated. What if Snape woke up with information about where his son was?

"Do not worry Poppy will alert us if they awaken." James nodded and left the room behind Dumbledore. He hoped Sirius didn't kill the muggles. He didn't think he could bear it if he did.

He would have to owl Remus about what was happening. He ran a hand through his hair in frustration why did this have to happen to his family.

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Firenze looked at the stars with interest, something had disturbed their pattern, Mars had suddenly shifted! Was the wizard war over? His intense blue eyes looked up unblinking.

No it was still there only dimmer, the war would restart. Of that he was sure, two other planets were shining brightly, Jupiter and Venus. What could that mean? He flicked his tail in annoyance, it was frustrating when the stars weren't clear. Was something going to happen?

As if answering his question black flames appeared, but even though they were close to him they were not hot when the flames died down, there was a pure white phoenix laying on a small bundle.

The bird looked exhausted it barely had the energy to give a weak trill in Firenze's direction, the creature's eyes had an unnatural blackness to them that made Firenze a little uneasy.

The pinto approached the bundle carefully and looked down and to his surprise saw a human baby. The bird that laying on the baby keeping it warm, and protected, the boy looked up at him with forest green eyes. They were wide and curious, like all foals at his age.

He could tell this boy was magical and would be powerful too once he was trained. But what was he doing here? With only a phoenix as a guard? In the middle of the forest? He should take him to the school and give him to Dumbledore. If another centaur had found him they would have left him to die.

"Firenze! Are you here?" He turned with a start to see a very pretty centaur girl, her horse parts were of the paint breed, her human parts were also attractive.

She had long brown hair that grew down her spine like a horses mane and light brown eyes that were always soft and warm. He instantly relaxed, a female centaur couldn't resist a child of any type.

This particular girl was named Lilith his foalhood friend.

She stepped into the area and saw him standing over something, "What do you have…" she saw the baby and let out a high pitched whinny of excitement, "OH a foal! Were did you find him Firenze!" she laid down carefully to look at him closer.

"But what's a phoenix doing here?" She looked at the boys forehead, and brushed back her hair "He has the yang sign on his forehead, were did he get that from?" She wondered out loud.

She reached into a pocket of a pack that all females carried with them, they held every item needed to heal anything, she pulled out a small vile made of wood, when he looked closer he saw it was a restorative potion that the centaurs invented for the animals of the forests. She held the birds head up and carefully poured the potion down its throat.

The bird coughed for a minute before it stood up and ruffled his feathers, he gave a chirp of thanks and spread his wings in a long stretch. He gave her a curious look then settled down on the boy.

"I see you're his familiar." the bird nodded and gave a fond trill in the boy's direction the boy who was watching quietly gave a small giggle and reached out to touch the birds feathers. The phoenix gave a happy chirp the boy giggled again and gave a chirp of his own.

The two centaurs looked in curiously as the boy repeated the trills and chirps back at the phoenix perfectly. Lilith decided to pick the boy up then, the bird flew off the boy and onto Lilith's back, the boy gave a little whimper of sadness but quickly stopped when he saw the newest person that was holding him. He examined her for a minute before turning back to Firenze to watch him.

"Firenze I think we should take him to the Council of Elders, I think he is meant to stay with us, the stars say it so."

Firenze looked up he had almost forgotten about the odd sign he had seen earlier. Jupiter next to Venus. He looked down at the boy, yes, it must be! He nodded and Lilith gave another happy whinny, making the boy giggle and repeat the sound.

That made Lilith laugh even harder, "Oh! (Giggle) He's adorable!" she said her whole body shaking with laughter making the phoenix on her back dig his claws into her back to keep himself steady. When they got her laughter under control they started off toward the centaurs glade a place were no humans had ever set foot.

It was a long walk and with the bumping and warmth of the night the boy quickly fell asleep, Lilith wrapped the blanket around him to hide his face. When they reached the glade there were two guards standing there, one was fresh out of his aprentishship, the other, was the one centuar he didn't want to see.

Bane.

He gave a small nod of greating to both of them hoping they didn't notice the baby human wrapped in the blanket they were almost in when Bane stopped them.

"Lilith, what do you have there," she stiffened and turned toward him, "Nothing, just something I found in the woods that's all," his nose twitched in anoyance, "It smells like human, fresh too." He moved toward her reaching for the blanket.

She jolted backwards with an angry snort, "What I have is none of your busness!" she stamped her foot in a huff and walked past them, it was a bad idea to make a female centuar angry, they could kick faster than a male, and it was very painful if they all ganged up on someone. Which they tended to do.

He saw heasatition cross Bane's face, on one hoof he wanted to see what she had found, on the other, she scared him. He wisely let her alone and returned to the snickering new guard.

Firenze let out a sigh of relief and folowed Lilith to the Old oak tree, it was the very Heart of the forest, the first tree ever to grow in the forest, no one knew how old it was but it was proably over 3000 years old.

Even before the tales of the founders there were tales of the ancient tree that kept the forest alive, The centuars slept ate and socialized under its protective roots that formed many tunnels storage areas, water gathering places, (were after the rains came water was trapped to be collected) and places to rest on hot days.

There were three main areas that the centuars used everyday, the nursery, were the youngest foals lived, the apprentance area, were the older foals lived, and the main area for the older unmated centaurs, but that was divided by a large curtion of moss, males on the left females on the right.

For mated couples they just chose random places to sleep in the tree. Mated couples were rare, so they didn't need a specific sleeping area.

But right now Firenze and Lilith were heading to a sub tunnel that led to the five oldest centuars area, they made all the decisions for the main herd, and were the ones who would decide the boys fate.

It was a long dim path, not totally dark because of the glowing rocks on each side of the tunnel. They walked until they came to a small chanber were the five elders sat, legs tucked under them, old coats almost all dull gray from age, that spoke once of young sleek bodys.

There were three females and two males, all watching Lilith and Frienze. Lillith gave a low bow of respect and the elders nodded back.

"Young filly, what do you wish of us?" an older female with a hint of an old bay coat spoke.

"Honorable Grandmother, I have come to ask permision for a human to live here."

There were loud shouts of outrage from the two males in the corner and a look of intrest from the females.

"You know our laws, no human is allowed in the tree."

Lilith sighed and unwrapped the boy from the blanket.

"YOU BROUGHT IT HERE!" One of the males shouted in anger, "How could you bring that… thing! HERE!"

"Were did you find it child?"

"Actualy I didn't, Firenze did," she made room for him to step up next to her and gave the boy to him, the almost forgotten Phoneix flew to Firenzes back now, keeping a watchful look on the elder males.

"Tell me Firenze, how is it you came across this colt?"

"Phoneix fire, it brought him here, right after mars shifited," the two males in the corner looked up, interested, "Mars shifted you say? Did any other star start to shine brightly?"

Firenze nodded, "Jupiter and Venus, after I asked what it could it mean this human colt appeared." The two males, all hostitaly toward the human gone now, "If that is what you saw than it must be that he would help us in the future," a raggid female voice rasped out.

The boy who was now awake has started up the odd whistling of the phoenix song again and all watched as he started to glow softly, the phoenix on firenzes back started singing along with him and the young boy glowed so bright a light it was almost blinding.

When the glowing stoped, Firenze was holding the waist of a young centuar colt. He gave a giggle and kicked out with his new black legs.

He had the back of an Arabian, his fur was black and shinny, he was perfectly healthy. he was a little small for a centuar of his age but that could be changed with food and exersise.

"The boy is an Animist!" one of the males shouted "A lucky omen!" the other one shouted, "He must stay!" one of the females chanted, "Firenze and Lilith will keep him!" the female who spoke to them first spoke last, "He will need a name,"

Lilith looked at him and with a sad smile said "Faunus, after my father." she whispered, "Bear the name well little one."

The boy now christened Faunus smiled and wiggled out of Firenze's arms and walked on wobbly legs over to Lilith and huged her right foreleg.

This was the start of Faunus's new life, in the centaur herd


	2. Chapter 2

Summery: Something saved the Potters at the last second, but when they escaped, Harry was transported to the forests by Hogwarts. Now alone in the Forbidden Forest, what will happen to Harry?

An. I would like to thank my first reviewer Cart (Nice name by the way) Don't worry I have every intention of finishing this story. I hope you enjoy chapter 2.

An 2: I would like to thank George for his help in chapters one and two, No I don't think that you are being rude, in fact you are helpful I will fix the problems. I do have a beta but she is never around to help me anymore so I was on my own with correcting the problems today. Anyway thanks again. I can honestly say you saved me a lot of embarrassment.

Chapter 2 Faunus

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The young boy hoisted himself up in to the tree, legs scrambling to find a good foothold, when he finally got to a firm enough hold on the branch he looked down between the branches and gave a sly smirk.

A centaur walked directly under the tree, his pinto coat gleamed in the sunlight tail swishing back and forth lazily. But his human parts were tense, his oddly intense blue eyes scanning every part of the forest.

"Faunus, you will have to come out eventually, you can't avoid this forever." The boy in the tree held back a snort, he could avoid anything he wanted to, always has.

"Fine Faunus, since you won't talk to me and will not come out you leave me no other choice." The boy frowned in confusion, what was he going to do? He watched as the centaur pulled out a small cup.

His eyes widened in horror, he knew what that was, that was his-

"Your warrior beads, I have each and every one of them, and if you don't come out I will give them to Bane." the boy frowned, he wouldn't dare. "Very well, if that won't work I will simply have to throw them away."

He pulled his arm back, aimed for the small river that was close by, and threw.

"NO!!" he shouted, then covered his mouth, oops, he just gave away his location, but what did it matter his beads were gone! How could Firenze have done such a thing! Firenze smiled up at his panicked look. How could he be so happy, with out those beads he couldn't become an adult!

A trilling sound next to his ear made him look over, it was Yang, his familiar, and his best friend. In the birds talons was his bead cup. He sighed in relief and took them from the bird, "Thanks Yang." the bird gave a 'don't mention it' sort of look and flew to his shoulder glaring at Firenze. The centaur just chuckled at the birds glare, "I had to find him some way," the bird gave an angry chirp, "I know you could have found him but you were away," the bird chirped again, "I didn't want to disturb you."

The bird just ruffled his feathers and gave him an annoyed look, he looked at Faunus with a curious look and gave an inquisitive chirp, Faunus nodded, "Yes you can help me down," bird brought his overly long tail around and made Faunus grab it.

Yang flew up, a little then forward dragging his seemingly weightless passenger effortlessly through the air, then gently lowering him to the ground. As soon as his feet touched the ground Faunus transformed into a young centaur.

He was about 14 hands tall from leg to flank, still on the smaller side, but that wasn't a concern, he was fast and strong, the mussels that rippled every time he moved proved that, his human side wasn't half bad either he was lean but had a little built up muscle.

His eyes were still as bright as they were when he was young, and still the color of the forest. That got him many a look from the young fillies in the village. Plus the many warrior beads he had received attracted a lot of attention.

Most foals his age didn't even have one, but Faunus had five, the more beads the higher the ranking, a foal earned them as they grew until their adult ceremony. Each bead represented an event that had happened in their life that had gotten them the beads.

Each one unique. The first one was pure white, that was given to him when he had first arrived, it signified his phoenix who had brought him to the forest, the next blue, the color of his mentors eyes that was when he first became an apprentice, the third was carved into the shape of a snowflake, for keeping the cold out of the nursery the night of the blizzard, the forth had an arrow head carved into it for becoming the best archer in his age group, and the fifth was in the shape of a spider, he had allied the spiders and the centaurs when he had healed Aragog, the head spiders, eyes.

It was a very impressive collection, he was known as fearless but when it was time to cut his hair and trim his hooves, he was a monster. That was the reason he ran off, everyone thought it was hilarious. He had good reason not to go through with it, every time he did go through with it something bad happened.

Last time a flying bit of trimmed hoof flew up and into his eye (Don't ask how that happened!) and the time before that they partially sheared off all his hair, and most recently he had a young lonely filly who had always wanted a child of her own.

He had wore ribbons for a weak because of her. Some joked that he should have gotten a bead for his bravery in wearing them, Faunus had a feeling this time would be the worst he had ever experienced.

Why, because he had heard from a cretin bird that Bane would be his trimmer this year, and Bane had a grudge against him for some strange reason it was probably because of his human heritage.

The rest of the herd accepted him right away according to Firenze, he was what their people called an Animist, that meant he could turn into any animal he wanted to, a symbol of good luck. But that took a lot of energy to do any other creature besides centaur and human, he still had to have Yang's help to do larger transformations.

Firenze trotted up to him and gave him a hard flick with his tail making Faunus yelp in pain, "What was that for!"

"For running off, after 13 summers you should know better, plus you skipped your morning lessons on prophesy so you will have to go gathering moon dew off the Night Shade plants." Faunus frowned in confusion "But the only plants in bloom at this time are near the school. What if I'm seen?"

Firenze smiled, "Then you run, you blend in the best at night, and you are the fastest," he had a evil smile on his face, "And if that doesn't work just call for those spider friends of yours." Faunus gave him a shocked look, what was up with him today?

Normally he was emotionless, well he would find out later, he vowed. Yang, who was watching in amusement, gave him an 'I know something you don't know' look, that made him suspicious but he went after Firenze, back toward the Old tree.

When they first got to the tree he noticed something off, it was way to quiet, not even the birds were singing, Yang who was now riding on his shoulder gave a low trill that sounded like a chuckle, and Firenze looked amused as well.

They were almost at the tree when…

"HAPPY FOALINGDAY!" He reeled back almost all of the village jumped out of the tree, all wearing bright colors, from paints, on their pelts and holding food or gifts. All wearing bright smiles. A mare walked in front of the crowd holding a brand new set of arrows and a glimmering black bow.

It was Lilith, his adopted mother, she ran up to him, thrust her gift into his arms and hugged him so hard he was sure a rib had broken. She pulled back and started laughing at his still dazed expression.

Firenze was watching him with amusement, Faunus half heartedly glared at him "You knew," he nodded, "Yang did too." He turned to the amused looking phoenix who was sitting on Lilith's back, "I'm not getting a trim am I?"

"Yes but not by Bane, you are getting one tomorrow, we just wanted to get you away for a few hours, plus it was funny seeing your panicked look." Lilith said with a smile.

He shook his head in amusement, "So does that mean I don't have to collect moon dew?" he asked.

"Don't think you can get out of that, you still have to go, you shouldn't have missed class, but right now enjoy your party," Firenze said expressionlessly, He was back to normal, he nodded and went to join the other foals his age, content with everything that was going on.

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Firenze looked up at the sky, it was getting dark and the first signs of stars were appearing and like every time at this year he looked for Mars, which was growing staidly brighter as the years passed. War would be upon the outside world soon, and he had a feeling that his young colt would be dragged into it.

It was his birth world. But if and when the time came, he didn't think he could let him go. As if sensing his thoughts Lilith walked over and placed a had on his shoulder and smiled.

"He will be ok, when the time comes." Firenze gave a weak smile and nodded. He would be ok, he had to believe that, for Faunus sake.

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Severus Snape watched as the students filed in for the Halloween feast with his usual scowl in place. All of them sitting down stuffing their faces with various sweets.

It was disgusting, he wasn't even sure why he was there, oh right, Yin had made him leave the dungeons. He didn't know what the birds problem was but she seemed in a really good mood all of a sudden. It was very out of character for the phoenix.

Ever since that day 13 years ago the bird wouldn't leave him alone, he was lucky that not many people knew he had her, it would kill his reputation. But after a few years he had gotten used to her and her odd sense of humor, the only thing he regretted about coming to the feast, was that he would have to watch Potter stuff his fat face.

He eyed the Gryffindor table waiting for the bane of his existence to enter with his group, if he was correct, and he always was. Then he would be there in..3..2..1..

The doors to the great hall opened to let in a tall red haired boy, behind him was the Weasley girl and next to her was a black haired Ravenclaw with a dreamy expression on her face.

The boy was Connor Potter, second son of the Potters, after mourning their first son the Potters had Connor, the selfish, spoilt, brat. When one got up close you could see his hazel eyes glowing with mischief. Ginny Weasley the first follower of the Potters probably saw nothing but the fame of the Potter name.

Luna Lovegood he wasn't sure of she just started to hang around with them one day, a very odd girl in almost everyone's eyes but Severus had a feeling that there was more to her than that.

The doors to the great hall opened again and in walked the next Potter, Nichole Potter, she was the polar opposite of her brother, her eyes were a deep purple color, almost black and shone with intelligence. Her hair was the same purplish black as her eyes. A very eerie girl, known for her sharp words and even sharper wit.

She bore the symbol of Ravenclaw on her robes. It was hard to believe she was Connors twin. A few minutes the last child of the Potter family came in.

The last Potter was with a girl he reconised as the second Malfoy child Bella. Bella, like her older brother was the carbon copy of her father.

The last Potter child, Tara Potter, looked nothing like her parents she had long blond hair and yellow eyes, where she had gotten her looks from he would never know, but she was refreshing from the other two Potters.

For one she was a Slytherin, cunning and proud, had the same intelligence as her sister but didn't flaunt it in the way she did, she had a quiet understanding that she shouldn't have and could make any one feel good or terrible with a word. She put up a tough act around everyone, but around people she trusted she was a lamb.

She actualy spent some of her time on the weekands to talk to Severus, he grudgingly admited to having a soft spot for the girl, and it was only her 1st year. She looked up at him and smiled, he gave her a small nod and turned to his still full plate of food.

He shouldn't be here, he should be in the forest collecting the moon dew from the Night Shade, it was a full moon tonight and they needed to be collected today. Since he wasn't hungry -and after seeing Connor Potter eat he didn't think he would ever be hungry again- he left for his private roomes to gather the vials he needed, and a warm cloak.

It would be a long night quiet night.

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Tara looked up at Professor Snape's empty seat, she could feel his frustration even from the Slytherin table, and she wanted to help him. She excused her self from the table and started walking toward the dungens, following his color pattern of black, green, white, and Gray. In the past she had tried to tell people about the lights she saw wrapped around people, magical creatures and things, but she was waved off as a silly little girl.

She learned to stop talking about the lights early in life. She could tell her parents were uneasy around her after that, even though they smiled at her. They were just wearing a mask, but she knew their every emotion.

That was why she kept to her self mostly, away from all the masks of people, she had only met two people who outwardly matched their emotions. Her potions professor, Professor Snape, and Bella Malfoy.

And right now one of her closest friends was frustrated with something and she wanted to help. She caught up to him quickly but he didn't appear to notice her yet.

"Hello Professor Snape!" He jumped and turned scowling, ready to tell off what ever fool had just spoken when he saw her he relaxed.

"Miss Potter, can I help you?"

"I was wondering what made you so frustrated back there?"

He looked surprised for a minute before responding, "It's the full moon tonight, and the only chance I will have this month at collecting moon dew from off the Night Shade," Tara nodded.

"Can I help?" he looked hesitant for a second before nodding, "Very well as long as you do exactly as I tell you, and don't touch anything you don't recognize," Tara nodded eagerly.

"I need to pick up a few things from my rooms before we can go, meet me at the front doors. And for goodness sake girl bring a cloak! I won't have you getting sick!" He walked away leaving a smirking Tara, he may have not shown it but he did care.

She ran toward the Slytherin common room, taking the many shortcuts that she had found in her short time at the school, until finally she came to the dead end.

"Snake Charmer." she said, a door appeared were there was once a wall and swung open Tara walked into the common room and was instantly hit with a blast of heat, many people said that the Slytherin common room was just as cold as the dungeons, but that wasn't true.

Sure it was a little chilly but that was because it was under the lake, if they didn't have the fireplaces going at all times they would freeze to death. She ran to her room, grabbed her cloak and left the warmth of the common room.

She wound her way out of the dungeons and ran to the front doors, Professor Snape was there already to her surprise, how had he beaten her here?

"Come along Miss Potter, the moon is still high." she nodded, he opened the door and strode out cloak billowing out behind him.

'I wonder how he does that?' Tara wondered as they walked into the forest, 'Is there some sort of spell to make them do that? Or is it just practice? I have to ask him later' she quickly looked at Snape trying to figure out the secret of the robes but picked up on his emotions instead, his emotions were cool and calm. He liked the forest, and the quiet of the night, he was totally relaxed.

She was so focused on his positive emotions that she almost ran into him when he stopped, "Why are we stopping?" she felt his emotions rushing at her, panic, nervousness and she could feel him preparing to pull out his wand.

What was happening?

She looked around him to see something bending over the plants it looked like a horse, but what was a horse doing here? The creature that was bending over straitened up, Tara gasped, it was a centaur!

Her hands flew up to her mouth, had it heard her? The creature looked up and she almost gasped again, he looked like her father! She heard the trilling of a phoenix, was it Snape's phoenix Yin?

It wasn't Yin, but a white phoenix, the white phoenix flew from a nearby tree to the centaurs shoulder, it gave another trill and looked in their direction. The centaur looked over at them his eyes wide in surprise. He grabbed a bow that was slung across his back and a black plumed arrow and aimed. Snape got out his wand and pointed at him.

He was preparing to cast a spell, she could tell it was going to be a defensive spell because one of the strands of colors that surrounded Professor Snape was being channeled into his wand, the white strand.

Tara then realized something, she could feel the centaurs emotions, as well it was fear! But not of them, of something behind them. She turned, and screamed.

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Faunus heard the girl scream, so they now realized they were being hunted. Yang had told him of the rogue werewolf and the humans, he wanted him to save them. He didn't know why the bird would ask him to save them he would have done so anyway, it wasn't in his nature to let someone get hurt.

The older male turned at the scream and saw the werewolf. He cast a spell and a jet of red light shot out of his wand and hit the silver furred creature, he grabbed the girl behind him and started to run.

The wolf looked dazed for a minute before charging after them, that was when Faunus made his move he let loose the arrow just as the wolf had jumped onto the mans back, knocking him out.

The arrow hit the wolfs shoulder, it howled in pain and turned his attention to him, the wolf started to run/limp after him, but Faunus wasn't worried he could outrun the stupid creature, and he still had his arrows. But what the girl said next made him a little worried.

"There's more than that one!"

Yang flew up and circled the area and said there were 3 others, one he could handle. But four? What were so many doing in the forest so close to the school? A low growl sounded behind him, and another to his right, the last was next to the first, they were surrounded. The injured wolf and the other wolf went for the easy prey the two humans.

Leaving him to the other two wolves to go after him.

He pulled out another arrow, he had two choices, one, save his own skin and run, two go out fighting, or three hope for a miracle. He got three.

A black phoenix all of a sudden appeared in a burst of white flame and started letting out a horrible screeching noise, all the wolves howled in pain and started pawing at their ears, what was going on? And why did that noise, sound so familiar?

Faunus didn't have time to think about it though, while the wolves were writhing on the ground in pain he ran over to the girl and man, her eyes were wide in fear when he came over. But relaxed a little when Yang flew over.

He trilled a note into his ear, he would take the man to the safe place in the forest. Faunus nodded.

"Can you take the girl as well?" he asked the bird, Yang chirped a negitive, he could only take one at a time, Faunus would have to take her. He realy didn't want a human on his back, but what could he do? She wasn't fast enough to make it to the safe place, and she didn't know the way.

"Go Yang." The bird gave another trill, landed on the mans back and disappeared in a burst of black flame. He turned to the girl who was looking at him strangely, 'what an odd looking girl' he thought. But that thought was quickly forgotten, the wolves were starting to stand.

"Girl get on!" he said, she nodded, but was having trouble getting on.

"Oh for goodness sake!" he yelled, twisted around, grabbed, and hoisted her up on to his back. She let out a squeak of surprise and wrapped her arms around him, bumping into his quiver full of arrows.

"Hold on tight!" He said he could feel her nod, he started to run just as the black phoenix disappeared and the song that was holding the wolves ended. He ran through the woods with the grace that came with living in the woods all of his life. He knew every turn, and twist in the forest.

The wolves who didn't have that advantage were left crashing through the bushes, and were slowed down, he could hear their howls echo behind him angrily as he got further away. He felt the small girl on his back tense every time he moved suddenly, or jumped. He wondered why she was so nervous, did she think he would drop her?

He shook away those thoughts and continued to the one safe place in the forest, the Place of Peace. All the creatures in the forest were bound by the ancient magic that was in the small clearing, it was said that the Lady Hufflepuff put up the enchantments herself when the centaurs were at war with the founders, this place was were the treaty was signed to end the feud, and negotiations took place.

He made it there in record time, the clearing was a large grassy place with a small grove of fruit trees, and a crystal clear blue lake, it was a good place for resting in peace.

He saw that Yang was sitting in an apple tree watching the now awake man, and the man was watching the bird, the sound of his hooves interrupted the staring contest going on between them and made them both look over. He felt the girl slide off his back and walk over to the man.

"Professor Snape I'm so glad you are alright!" she partially shouted, the man just gave a small grunt. "Did that werewolf hurt you?"

"No, he just knocked me out, do you have my wand?" The girl shook her head, the man swore and got up, and turned to Faunus.

"You saved us, why?"

'What no thank you?' He thought.

"Because I couldn't let you get mauled by a werewolf, I didn't want to see you two hurt." the man, Snape, snorted he didn't believe him. But Faunus didn't care, 'Let him believe what he wants' he thought.

"Well thank you for saving us," The girl said, she gave a shy smile, "My name is Tara Potter," he liked this girl better than the Snape person.

"I am Faunus, and you are welcome Tara Potter." She smiled again, this time less shyly.

"Just call me Tara." Faunus nodded. "Very well Tara," he turned to both of them, they were staring at him as if they recognized him, it was making him uneasy, the girl seeming to understand looked politely away and started studying Yang.

"You should stay here until morning, that way you wont be bothered by werewolves," Snape looked at him distrustfuly, "Why wouldn't they bother us here. It doesn't look safe, there are no wards or anything else to protect it."

"This is the Place of Peace, no creature can harm anything here as long as they stay on the grass, and you can't be taken out unless you walk out of your own free will," he turned and started to walk away, "I must go back to my Herd, Yang will take you back to the school in the morning." The white bird gave a trill and nodded.

Faunus gave them one last nod and started the trek to the old tree, wondering why they had kept looking at him like that, like they knew him. He shook his head, they would be gone in the morning and he wouldn't have to think about them ever again.

He had more pressing problems to think about, like the wolf pack, where had they come from? He would have to tell the elders, and he would have to explain why he didn't fill all his vials with moon dew to Firenze. He sighed, it would be a long night.

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The wolf pack searched and searched for the Centaur boy but his scent was gone, the two humans they were after had escaped. The Master wouldn't be pleased, and their sire would punish them.

Oh yes, they didn't take dissapointment well. They would be disappointed that one was injured too. They would have to report back before the sun shone, yes, they would have to go.

But they would be back, oh yes, they would be back.

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Above the wolves Mars shone brightly, with the wolves, would come the war.

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James Potter looked out the window of his office on the third floor, he hated Halloween, it made him remember how he failed to protect his family, and the day the Potters became famous for his sons defeat of Voldemort. The-Baby-Who-Died.

At first he blamed his sons loss on Snape, but it wasn't Snape's fault, it was his. He had accepted that by now, even though Lily had always said that it was beyind their control. The fact that Sirius was sent to Azkaban the same day didn't help matters either.

He didn't even get a trial, which James and Dumbledore kept pushing for, they went ignored though, it was all Fudge's fault, he said all the evidence pointed to him. He still remembered his best friends screams as he was dragged away by the Dementors.

Remus wasn't better off either, he looked older and more haggard as the years went by, the loss of two of his friends hurt more than anyone ever imagined it would. The stress and sorrow the family was going through was effecting him badly. But time with Nichole, his goddaughter, seemed to help him, and he started to recover, he even went on to teach DADA. But Dumbledore had sent him to be their ambassador to the wolf tribes of the north.

So now James was the newest DADA teacher until Remus came back, he had wanted to stay near his children to keep them safe, so what better way to be near them? Although they were probably annoyed with seeing him all the time. Especially Tara, his youngest girl, she made him a little uneasy, and he could tell she was uncomfortable with him too.

It hurt to look at her some times, he wished he could connect with her in some way. But they had nothing in common, in fact she was spending almost every weekend with Snape.

His other daughter, Nichole, was more like her mother, but she looked like his own mother and loved to hear stories about her. His son was the prankster in the family. He was like a copy of James personality wise. They had no problems talking, and James often wondered if that was the way it would have been with Harry?

He shook away those thoughts, it was too painful to remember sometimes. A soft knock on his office door interrupted his thoughts, who could that be?

"Enter." the door opened and to his surprise in walked Bella Malfoy, she looked fidgety and nervous.

"Miss Malfoy? What brings you here?" she turned her bright sliver eyes to him and James saw worry shining in them, "I was looking for Tara, have you seen her?" that was odd, those girls were partially joined at the hip. That much he knew.

"Did you ask Professor Snape, he might know were she is." she shook her head.

"I already thought of that but he wasn't in his office and I didn't know were his private rooms are so I couldn't check there." That was certainly odd, he walked over to his fireplace, and threw in some Floo power.

"Severus Snape's Quarters!" he shouted and stuck his head in, the spinning made him a little sick but he recovered quickly. He looked around the dark room but there was no one around, he spotted a house elf in the corner of the room cleaning, it hadn't even noticed him.

"Excuse me!" the elf squeaked in surprise at the sound of his voice, but quickly recovered and gave a low bow in his direction.

"What can Blinky be do'in for you Master Potter?"

"Have you seen Professor Snape?" the elf shook her head ears flaping.

"No sir, I has not seen Master Snape, not since he left sir."

"Left where Blinky?"

"Get'en potions ingredents from the dark forest sir."

James sighed, well he wouldn't be any help, but the elfs next words shocked him, "Mistress Tara went with him too sir."

"Thank you Blinky! I have to go!" He pulled his head out of the fireplace and turned to Bella, "When was the last time you saw Tara?"

"Before the feast." James frowned and stood up, that was about 3 hours ago, it didn't take that long to gather potions ingredients.

"Bella go back to your common room, I will find Tara."

"Why, what's going on," she frowned, "Has something happened to her?" James shook his head, "No, she is with professor Snape gathering Potions ingredients, she will be back later." Bella nodded slowly, she didn't believe him but would go.

'I hope I'm right' he thought and Flooed to Dumbledore's office. If he couldn't find them Dumbledore could.

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	3. Chapter 3

Summery: Something saved the Potters at the last second, but when they escaped, Harry was transported to the forests by Hogwarts. Now alone in the Forbidden Forest, what will happen to Harry?

An: There has been some confusion as to why I put Sirius into Azkaban, well this chapter should straiten things out. On another note I am sorry to update so late. My sisters cat, Kyo, chewed through my cord that lead to the power. We had to order another one and it took a while for it to get here.

Chapter 3 Sirius' Great Escape!

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The forest was too quiet for Jay's liking, the ground he was sliding on felt unnaturally hard on his smooth scales, and even though the sun was out he felt cold seep into his bones. Something was wrong, very wrong, the birds were gone from their usual perches, normally they would be twittering their fool heads off about something.

But there was not one bird, his forked tongue flicked out, there wasn't even the taste of mouse around. It seemed like a very good time to go back into his nice warm den and sleep for the rest of the week.

A sudden hissing behind Jay made him turn, a long black snake whipped past him hitting his sensitive nose with its long whip like tail. Jay cried out in pain, there was no blood but it still stung, he hissed insult so bad that some grass nearby wilted. No creature could swear worse than a snake.

Jay moved over to the black snake that was now laying in a patch of sun. What nerve! Hitting him on the nose then going to lay in a sun patch! Jay slid up to him.

"Listen here pal! You have a lot of nerve running into me like that, why I should-," The black snake started thrashing around uncontrollably, hissing in pain, before falling over again, it lifted its head a few inches and spoke in a broken tone.

"You can't escape, he holds your mind, and latches onto your soul, he kills you, he kills your soul!" the black snake convulsed again, "Run friend, my time is almost up! For Lord Voldemort comes to make you share my fate!"

Jay didn't like the sound of that, the black snakes head fell to the ground with a thud. Jay flicked out his tongue again, the snakes body was rapidly cooling, he was dead. A shimmering puff of white smoke floated out of the snakes body and slowly took on a human form. Jay recoiled back in surprise, what kind of magic was this!

The man thing smiled wickedly at Jay and reached down, Jay tried to move away but some invisible force was holding him still, the closer that hand got the more Jay felt his mind slip and when he didn't think he could bear it any more, the long white fingers touched his deep blue scales, and Jay's mind snapped.

He recovered after a few minutes, confused, and disoriented. He was moving forward in the direction of the pine trees, no, he couldn't go there too much open ground. A hawk could see him, or an owl. A voice in his head laughed. Hawks and owls were of no concern to them anymore.

He gave one last attempt to move but found it futile. He was trapped, a prisoner in his own mind. He wished he had listened to the black snake now and ran (He can run?) while he still had a chance.

He heard the mocking laughter of the thing that possessed him again.

__

'You should be honored I have chosen you little bird-'

'Jay!' he protested, what a disgrace it was to be called a little bird by a human!

__

'Ah, but I am not human I am so much more than that, I am Lord Voldemort your new master, now my little bird it is time for you to sleep.'

Jay felt himself black out, trapped in his own mind. Even thought he was 'asleep' images of the outside world flashed across his memory.

A man with a purple turban, a picture of a red stone, odd little creatures with pointed teeth, the feeling of disappointment, then the feeling of joy, and last but not least a giant stone castle and the word Hogwarts. Jay didn't know what they were doing here but he didn't have time to dwell on it as he felt his mind shut down again.

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The ragged man reached out for the black stone he had recently found, after fumbling around in the darkness for it he felt its cool, smooth surface. He then turned to a wall with white tally marks all over it.

The man didn't know why he kept up with this tradition of marking each passing of the days, it just reminded him of how long he had been there. He sighed as he made another mark on the wall, he didn't need to count how many marks there were to know what day it was.

October 31. The day he was sentenced to this nightmarish island.

It wasn't that he automatically knew when the day came, he just had to watch the Dementors and the one human on the island that interacted with the prisoners. Because every time, on Halloween, the Dementors would swarm his cell. The human who delivered the food, Ced, would give him extra 'food' that day, and he could make some of the worst stuff you could put in a human mouth.

On his first day in the cell he turned up his nose at the food, not even a dog would touch that stuff! (Well a dog probably would) But after a few days of no food, the gruel that was served started to smell good. The gruel that was served was a pasty gray color, with little lumps floating around in it, and to his horror they moved, turns out the were worms, but the kind of worm varied from day to day, and on special occasions maggots (which he preferred to most of the worms) or on holidays, a mouse, or a rat. Live mice or rats. You had to kill them yourself.

'Mice were much tastier than rats,' he thought to him self as he shoveled another bite of food into his mouth and crushing the maggot that had come with the soup with a satisfying crunch.

'Rats have that oily texture about them,' he continued as he picked up the dead mouse that had been floating in his soup, he laid it to one side and continued crunching maggots, 'There is only one rat I would eat though…' he thought as he chewed a particularly rubbery maggot.

'Well I might not eat him, just crunch that soft skull of his.'

He finished off his soup and placed the bowl next to the bars of his cell, the prisoners were allowed no utensils, so they normally used their hands or just poured the contents of their bowls directly in their mouths.

The man eyed the mouse laying next to him, he was still hungry, he transformed into a large black dog. Each rib showing and black coat dull, he carefully picked up the mouse, made sure he had a good on it, and bit down making a loud crunching noise as the small creatures bones were shattered in the dogs strong jaws.

After the mouse was eaten (Bones and all) the dog lay in the middle of the floor and gave a pathetic sounding wine, the Dementors were coming, he could feel it.

He felt the cold first, what water he had left in the small cup he was provided with froze, the small hole that was the toilet didn't smell as bad now, and the bars to his cell now had a thin layer of frost on them.

He spotted the first one two minutes after the cold came. The cell got darker than ever before and the feeling of hopelessness and sorrow intensified. The man was sure he would never be happy again. Then the memories started coming, and even in dog form, the power from the extra Dementors was enough to make him remember.

The Dementors stayed until he passed out from the sheer horror of his visions, seeing they would get nothing more from him they glided away, the man awoke later remembering the day he was brought to the island. The day he lost all hope of escape.

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Flashback.

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Sirius laughed insanely as he was dragged into one of the holding cells below the ministry, cell 12, if he wasn't mistaken. Only after someone cast a silencing charm on him did he fell the effects from Wormtail's jinx end. He felt the weak charm fail after five minutes, and that was when he started shouting.

"I'm not guilty! It wasn't me! It was Peter Pettigrew! I would never kill or betray anyone!"

The Aurors looked disbelievingly at him, "Nonsense, Peter Pettigrew is dead by your hand and everyone we interviewed says it was you who killed him-"

"I didn't kill anyone! He did, he's a rat animagous! He cut off his own finger!"

One of the Aurors looked down at him disdainfully, "We have no rat animagous's on our roster, and if he was one we would know. We have plenty of evidence that you are his killer from passerby, and your own laughter after the spell was cast."

He then took on a sad look, "How could you Sirius. We trusted you." the man turned and left him in the cell.

He continued shouting until another voice interrupted.

"Well, well, well if it isn't my darling cousin, Sirius. Finally decided were your loyalty's lie?"

Bellatrix Lestrange, his hated cousin, was in the cell across from him, her insane black eyes glinted as she watched him, beside her was a man he recognized at once as Barty Crouch Jr. and in the back of the cell was another unknown Deatheater.

"Shut up, Lestrange!" He hissed at her.

"I wonder, did it feel good to kill all those muggles Siri? Did you laugh?"

"Shut up, Lestrange!" he hissed out again.

"Oh, you should be nicer to your cousin Siri, after all we are on the same side now aren't we?" Beside her Barty laughed.

"That's right Siri!" He called over, "We are all going to the same place, but if we do get out, we will put in a good word for you to the dark lord." Both Deatheaters cackled at his furious look.

"OI SHUT UP IN THERE!" a voice yelled from the door.

"Are you going to make me pet?" Bellatrix shouted up.

"I'm warning you now, Lestrange! Be quiet!" the voice growled.

"Ohhhhh I wonder what he will do to us Barty!" Barty smiled in that crazy way again.

"I think he might throw us both into Azkaban Bella! Oh no! what ever will we do!" Bellatrix snickered, "I do see a problem with that plan Barty."

"Oh really what?"

"We are already going!"

"Goodness I almost forgot!"

"Well then," she continued, "I don't think I need to keep my voice down! How ever will I talk to dear cousin Siri if I don't!" they continued laughing loudly. A door slammed open to admit another person to the room.

An Auror, and another Deatheater. He recognized this one as well, he was put on her case after she murdered the family of a team leader that had led a successful raid on a Deatheater base.

Jackleen Sparoehawk. A deadly beauty. She was a little odd in personality though, and had a problem with all men and all male Aurors who went against her still had the scars to prove it, she was an alluring flower that people were naturally attracted to, long blood red hair, and the most odd silvery blue eyes. But even though she stood out in a crowd, Sirius could never seem find her, she was always one step ahead of him and the Aurors on his team. His former team.

Bella and Barty looked surprised for a minute then started yelling over at her to get her attention.

"Little Jack! How did they capture you!" Bella shouted.

"Don't tell me you turned your self in!" Barty yelled over, Bella rounded on Barty and smacked him on the head, "Of course she didn't turn her self in you dolt!" Barty sneered at Bella and was about to say something when the door to Sirius's cell door opened and the girl was tossed in.

"There you are, shame you're a Deatheater, you make a pretty girl." The girl turned her silvery eyes toward the guard and gave an angry hiss, she sounded like a cat, or a snake.

"Watch out, man!" she growled, "Women are like roses, beautiful to look at but watch out for the thorns! If I were out of here you would feel my sting!" The man quickly backed away from the cell and made a hasty exit. Jackleen turned to Sirius and her eyes lit up in recognition "You! You are the Auror that had been bothering me for the past year!"

Sirius wondered if she ever stopped yelling. Bella looked over to them and started talking again.

"Well little Jack, I would like you to meet my cousin Siri! You wont believe what he's in for, murder! My little Siri's all grown up." she wiped an imaginary tear off her face. Jackleen gave a small chuckle.

"So this is the white sheep of your family you have been telling me about, Sirius Black." She eyed him as of he were some kind of freakish sideshow attraction, Sirius glared at her but was slightly unnerved by her stare, her eyes reminded him of some one…

Bella continued chatting as if Jackleen hadn't spoken.

"I do wonder if we get to share cells, then we could talk for hours Siri, and Barty and little Jack could share the cell next to us! Oh what fun!"

"Not for me…" Barty mumbled, "Jack would kill me." Jackleen glared at him, and Sirius was sure if there weren't any bars to separate them she probably would have. The doors opened again and two teams of 5 came into the room.

An 11th figure came into the room, and he instantly recognized the pudgy face of minister Fudge.

"Deatheaters!" he announced loudly, "Your Master has fallen, and your time has come to pay your dues to society-"

"Well why didn't you say so Fuggy! How much do we owe you?" Bella shouted out, Fudge gave her an annoyed look but kept speaking. "You are all here with no chance of getting a trial, for your records say all we need to know, so you are all herby sentenced to life to-"

"Because the Lestrange vault is full to bursting and no madder what the cost I think I can pay it!" Barty snickered next to her, and Jackleen was having a hard time keeping quiet.

"YOU ARE HERE BY SENTANCED TO-"

"Did you know your eyes pop when your mad?" Jackleen asked innocently, Fudge looked furiously at her.

"And that, that vein on your neck is turning a hideous purple color!" Bella added.

"It clashes horribly with your outfit mate." Barty finished. The unknown Deatheater was turning red from trying not to laugh. Sirius may have been going to Azkaban, but he had to admit had hated the little man and this was too good an opportunity to pass up. If he was going down, he was going down a marauder!

"You know purple really isn't your color, have you tried yellow?" Sirius asked, and as if responding to his request his face turned a violent shade of yellow. "You know what I changed my mind purple does look better on you!" even a few of the Aurors started laughing.

"I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THIS TAKE THEM AWAY!" He stormed out of the room and in his rush tripped over his own robes which made them laugh even harder Fudge stood up his face an angry red color and he was about to leave when the doors burst open again and in walked an angry looking James Potter.

"STOP!" James shouted and ran over to the cell that Sirius was in, "Sirius Black is innocent!" that got the Aurors attention, one of the man who had picked up Sirius took a step forward, "James, you didn't see what he did, he blew up the whole street, he did. I saw it with me own two eyes, him sitting there laughing like a maniac," he took a step toward James and put a hand on his shoulder, "He killed Peter, James, and twelve other people I know this is hard but he betrayed you."

James shook his head, "If anyone betrayed me Peter did! He sold my family out to Voldemort-" Everyone in the room flinched, "And ran off like the rat he was!"

"Be that as it may," a woman stepped forward, she was wearing a hideous pink sweater with a pin of a kitten meowing pitifully at them, Sirius was strongly reminded of a toad when he looked at her face and was surprised that he didn't see webbing on her hands.

"He still murdered all those Muggles, we do have witnesses," she said in a sugary voice that made some of the people in the room flinch as badly as if they had heard Voldemort's name.

James gritted his teeth, "I demand you give him a trial! You can't sentence anyone without a fair trial!"

The woman smiled sweetly at him and spoke to him as if he were a young child, "We have no time for a useless trial, the evidence is stacked against him, and we do have better things to do then to hear a guilty man's story."

She turned to the Aurors, "Tale them to Azkaban, we are through here." they levitated the cages until they were placed on a giant Portkey used for transporting the large cages. Sirius watched helplessly as his friend was held back by two of the Aurors.

The last words he heard from his friend were that he would get him out of there, and Sirius believed him.

End flashback

Sirius never heard from James again, and even though he had promised to get him out, he never came. To his frustration he never had any news of the outside world, except a newspaper that the minister had given him but that was an old copy.

He never felt the warmth of the sun on his face, or the wind in his hair. It was strange… that was what he missed most. The sun.

He heard a deep rumble outside the prison walls, a storm was coming, a big one. He felt the rumble of the thunder as it shook the walls. No one would be coming or going to Azkaban for a while, the only way to the prison was by boat.

Sirius (Still in dog form) remembered how Peter hated storms, how he would transform into his rat form and hide in his bed and sleep for hours. That stupid, fat, gray- wait a minute.

He reached for a newspaper that the minister had given him and came face to face with the smiling family on the front, he looked at the youngest boy to the rat in his hands, Pettigrew! He had found him! The boy looked like he would still be at Hogwarts. He could get him!

He looked over at the bars of his cell, he might just be able to squeeze through, he got his head through easily, then one paw… now the other one… yes! He walked forward almost there…

NO!

His hips were too big! He picked up the sent of something coming, he tried backing up but he was stuck, oh he was in trouble! What was he going to do, the thing was getting closer, and closer…

BOOM!

Sirius gave a startled yelp and jumped forward, he was out just as the thing he had been dreading came around the corner, it was a Dementor, but it was only one so he wasn't effected. He gave a small sigh of relief, it wouldn't notice him if he stayed as Padfoot. He was right, the Dementor floated right past him. It was then that it hit Sirius, he was free!

He bolted down the hallway, passing the other prisoners cells, he heard their tortured screams and their yells of fright as he passed. That only made him run faster. He remembered the way out; he would never forget the way. Sirius then saw something that made his heart leap, a door to the outside! Wide open! He bolted through it and found himself on the rocky shore outside of the prison there was Ced the cook pulling in a box of something that smelled like salt water, so he was the one who left the door open, he didn't wait to be noticed took a running leap of the cliff and fell into the water.

That was when he realized how stupid he was.

The storm was still in full swing, and the waves were now at their biggest, and Sirius was an underfed mutt who hadn't exercised for a while. He could feel the waves pick him up and drag him closer to the prison, he had to move quickly or he could be slammed up against the rocks. With his mild adrenalin rush he forced his way forward, getting pounded by waves and rain, the sound of thunder echoing in his ears, and the bright streaks of lightning flashed above him.

All he knew was, he was free, and that he would make it to the other shore! He heard the cracking sound of the waves on the rocks of the prison. Or he could just get crushed against the rocks and die a painful death.

Sirius swam on, praying to any god listening that he would do anything to be able to live through this. He just hoped the gods were feeling generous.

-------------------


	4. Chapter 4

Summery: Something saved the Potters at the last second, but when they escaped, Harry was transported to the forests by Hogwarts. Now alone in the Forbidden Forest, what will happen to Harry?

An: Ok I have good news and bad news, the good news is I finally got my computer back! The bad news is the hard drive was completely cleared so I had to type all this chapter again, so it took me longer to get this updated. Sorry about that.

And A big thank you to all who review, it fills me heart with joy to read them, and when lacking inspiration I just look at them and I get inspired to write more! Keep them coming!

Oh and slytheringirl89, I would **never **pair Harry with Hermonie, or Ginny, not in a romantic relationship at least, NEVER! YOU CANT MAKE ME!… Ahem, sorry about that…

Well enjoy the chapter..

Chapter 4

Ced walked down the cold hallway, carrying a large overflowing cauldron, it was the food for the prisoners who ate this week. He pushed away all the hands that were reaching out through the bars that lined the walls, trying to grab him, and the cauldron he was carrying, but most were too weak to keep even a decent grip, let alone stop him from continuing forward.

They all gave deep moans of longing when the smell of the food reached them, and a few found a little bit of strength to reach into the cauldron before Ced could pull it away.

"Back you dogs!" he snarled and crushed someone's hand that was unlucky enough to get in his way, "You've all been fed three days ago, you can wait one more day!"

The prisoners all let out pain filled groans and kept up their reaching for him. Ced walked a little more quickly but the hands were starting to get too numerous again.

"Here now!" he shouted when someone with a particularly strong grip got hold of his arm.

"Stop that or I will call the Dementors!" That made person loosen his grip and all the prisoners start to scream again. He pulled himself away from the person grabbing him and went on.

He was entering the VIP's area now, (Very, Important, Prisoner) were the worst of the worst was held, the Lestranges, the girl with the pretty hair Sparoehawk, they even had that Barty Crouch for a while before he died last month. But the most famous out of them all was Sirius Black.

He had to be Ced's favorite, anyone who could stand the Dementors for as long as he did without going crazy was special, so Ced fed him every day, unlike the other prisoners. He still had some hope the man's friends would get him out, and remembering all the extra food and decent treatment from Ced, Sirius might then pull some strings to get him out of this hole.

Ced chuckled to himself at his thoughts, him, hope a former prisoner would help him get out of Azkaban. That was rich, after a few years in the VIP section with the slop he fed them all why would the man ever want his jailer out and about in the world.

He really needed to get his head out of the clouds. Like the man would ever get out anyway, all the evidence pointed to him being a murderer, he had no chance at freedom, even with Albus Dumbledore on his side.

"Lunch time Sirius!" He called as he reached his door, "Get it while its somewhat hot!"

He went up to Sirius's cell and peered in but there was no one in there, startled Ced dropped the cauldron he was carrying, it hit the floor with a loud clang and the food went all over the floor.

"No, Impossible!" he fumbled for the key at his belt for a minute trying to un-hook it, but his hands were shaking too badly, he lost his temper and ripped it off along with a piece of his pants.

Not noticing the rip Ced jammed the key into the small keyhole in the cell door and threw it open, he searched the whole cell desperately, even though he knew the horrible truth, Sirius Black had escaped.

In a blind panic he ran down the hallway he had just come down, past the prisoners, and past the first sweep of Dementors that patrolled the hallways, he ran into his small office were all the files were held, his apprentice, who never went into the prison but kept all the paperwork in order, looked up in surprise when Ced came running in.

He was good looking lad of about 18 years, fresh out of Hogwarts.

"Master Ced? What's-"

"Prisoner escape, number 736521, send out the alarm!" The boys eyes widened in horror.

"But that's-"

"Yes I know who it is just send out the alarm! I need to put this whole place on lockdown!" The boy ran from the office to another room that was covered in dust and grime, with no hesitation he grabbed the rope that hung from the ceiling and pulled.

A loud siren sounded over the island making the prisoners wail as loudly as the blaring noise, it was eerie the way the two sounds seemed to merge together.

Ced ran from the room and started the one drill he never thought he would need, the mass lockdown spell, he grabbed a small whistle and blew it as hard as he could, no sound came out but he knew it was working, the Dementors were swarming toward him, they looked confused, if the way they were moving was any hint.

"Dementors!" he shouted out, they all turned their faceless heads toward him, waiting, "Start the lockdown spell, there has been an escape!" they all turned and glided away, they knew what to do.

The Dementors spread out all over the prison, each time they passed a cell they put their cold clammy hands on the doors and instantly chains came out of the walls and wrapped themselves around the prisoners, the terrified prisoners let out loud screams as the chains drained them of all their magic, turning them into temporary squibs.

It was an automatic binding charm that had been placed on the prison since it was built, it had never been used before, they had never needed it before. Ced gave a small sigh of relief to see that even after hundreds of years the spell was still potent.

After each prisoner was secured and screaming, or weeping over their lost magic, he sent the Dementors outside the prison to patrol the stormy waters, making it icy cold, if the fool that had held all of his hopes of leaving the island had decided to swim, he would freeze to death before he reached the shore.

When that was taken care of he could only hope the boy had done his work properly.

It was a slow day in the Auror department. There just didn't seem to be anything anyone needed done… ok one thing but it was just a case of breaking and entering, turns out it was only a confused owl smashing through a window.

"I'm not surprised James left," Auror Harper, (His first name too embarrassing to be mentioned so we will just call him Harper) grumbled as he messed with the items on his desk, "Its gotten so dull around here!" he shouted slamming an empty inkpot down on his desk.

"What do you expect, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is dead, and almost all of his Deatheaters are rotting away in Azkaban," another Auror said pokeing her head in, "I almost wish the brute was back," the woman went on walking into the cubical , "Things were much more intresting then."

Harper sighed and jestured to the seat in front of the desk, the woman bounced in and sat with a loud plop, she tossed her honny blond hair over her shoulder and gave a wide smile in his direction.

"I wish you wouldn't talk like that Laura," Harper said disapprovingly, "You were only here for the end of the war, you didn't see its true horrors." Laura snorted.

"Harper, you've only been here for two years more than me, and besides-" she played with a strand of her hair, twirling it around a finger "-I wanted to see those horrors, it's the only reason I joined the Aurors," she, let the piece of hair she was playing with go and smiled at him again, "That and to take out a few Deatheaters along the way." Harper just looked at her in pure disbelief, every time she said that it startled him.

She laughed at his expression, her brilant smile was almost blinding, "You're too soft Harper!" she roared, "Much, much too soft."

"Now see here-!"

An alarm went off, it almost sounded like someone screaming! Lauren and Harper threw their hands over their ears.

"What's that sound!" Lauren shouted, but Harper couldn't hear her, his attention was on the tall imposing figure that was outside his cubical, this was an Auror he didn't recognize, the giant man jestured to Lauren and Harper and jerked his thumb up the isle, the meaning was clear, he wanted them to go.

Harper nodded, grabbed the confused Lauren by an elbow, and went after the man, as they went up the isle the giant stopped a few times to collect more confused Aurors and continued on until he reached the confrence room.

Every Auror in the department was there demanding answers, the Head Auror was desperately trying to calm every one down but with little success, the alarm was too loud, and the arguing was just making the noise level worse.

The Head Auror, a woman named Sara Teagan, was a small woman with very light brown hair and pretty green eyes, most people didn't think much of her at first, but after you saw her duel, and watched her deal with all the politics that went with the job you never doubted why she was Head Auror, normaly the woman was calm and dependable, but now she looked like a nervous wreck.

She was flailing her arms trying to get the confused Aurors attention, she was shouting something and looking close to panic. The large man held up a hand, instantly gaining her attention. She turned her desperate eyes to him begging for help.

The man pulled out his wand and shouted so loud that even Harper could hear him "**Quietus**!" the alarm stopped abruptly, and now the only sound was the Aurors screaming.

She gave a releived smile in the man's direction and turned back to the panicking crowd, she pulled out her own wand and sent out a loud banging noise, instantly all the Aurors pulled out their wands and aimed at her.

She looked startled for a minute but quickly replaced the look with a scowl.

"All right you lot put your wands away and listen up!" the croud did as they were told, giving mumbled apologies, "The alarm you all just heard means that there has been an emergency at Azkaban," the Aurors all turned to the person standing next to them and started whispering.

"QUIET!" the Head Auror shouted, "Now I don't know what's going on right now," all eyes were glued to her, "But I'm going to find out, I want a group of twelve to go to Azkaban and see what the problem is, any volunteers see me."

She turned to the giant man, who was the only one to have the sense to put up a silencing charm, "Kingsley, report to my office, now." The man nodded and went after her into her office that was, conviently, next to the confrence room.

Lauren grabbed Harper and pulled him toward the office after them, "What are you doing!" Harper yelled and tried to wrench his arm out of her grasp, but she just turned her brilant smile back to him again.

"We," she pronounced the we very slowly as if he was too stupid to understand, "Are going to go volunteer before they run out of spots." Harper had fianly gotten free of her grip and was backing away slowly.

"By Merlin you're crazy," he said shaking his head, "You are telling me you are going to go to Azkaban, willingly."

"No," Harper gave a small sigh of relief, "We are going to go to Azkaban willingly." Before he could protest she had grabbed his arm and was dragging him to the Head Aurors office.

"Its not willing if you force me!" Harper shouted as she dragged him closer and closer to the door, "I'll have the law on you harlot!" She gave a loud laugh.

"We are the law stupid!" With that final note she burst into the office were a large group of people were all standing around the Head's desk, all eyes turned to them, Harper was slightly nervous at the sudden attention, but Lauren had no such fears.

"We want to go." She announced. Harper was still trying to pull away, "I don't!" he shouted, or at least he tried to, Lauren must have put a silencing spell on him.

Sneeky little snake.

The Head Auror looked surprised at first but finally shrugged, "Fine Auror-?"

"Sampson, and this is Auror Harper." She nodded toward Harper whan she said his name, Kingsly gave an amused smile when he saw Harper, but Harper wasn't in the mood to be friendly.

"A little quiet isn't he." Kingsly said with chuckle, his voice was rich and deep sounding, Harper was almost startled by the sound of it. Lauren nodded, "Yes, but he's a good dueler, now enough about Harper, let's go!"

Kingsly shrugged and held out what looked like a mini Dementor, "This is the portkey to Azkaban, now that we have a full group we can leave, everyone get a good grip." arms struggled to reach the thing, and Harper thought he could see a chance of escape when Lauren let him go.

But she just used the hand that was holding his and touched the tiny figurine. Harper gave up all hope of escape.

"On three, one, two," before he could say three Harper felt the tug of the portkey activating and they were on their way.

Why did everything hurt?

Sirius groaned and rolled over and burried his face into the soft substance under him, it turned out to be a very bad idea, whatever it was hurt to be inhaled.

Sirius opened his his eyes and came face to dirt with white sand, he sat up spitting out the mouth full of sand and clearing his nose as best as he could, when had Azkaban gotten so sandy?

'Wait, sandy?' Sirius took a look af the area around him, a beatuful white beach streached out before him, colorful shells decorated the shoreline and various seabirds flew overhead, the breeze carried the smells and sounds of the ocean.

Waves crashed the shore loudly and covered his bare feet with icy water, the smell of the salty sea hit his nose along with the smell of something fishy, but best of all was the sun, the bright beatuful sun beating down on his face, warm and plesent.

It hit Sirius then, he was free, he had survived the night swimming through the very waves that were splashing weakly aganst his feet now. The thought was overwhelming, his legs wobbled and gave out.

He was free, his whole body shook with sobs, his hands dug into the white sand and he squeezed it as hard as he could, just to hold on to something, just to prove it was real, sweet fredom, it was his, he turned his tear stained face to the sun and let the warmth hit his face.

Then Sirius dud something he never thought he would do again, he laughed, long and hard, the waves rumbled, seeming to laugh with him and rushing up to soak his ragged outfit.

"I'm free." he whispered the words he had only dared to think, his lips tingled at the feel of the words. Sirius threw back his head again.

"I'M FREE!" he shouted, and he was.

"What you have done is irresponsible and stupid," the elder said gruffly "And you will have to be punished." Faunus lowered his head to hide his anger, he should have known he would get in troubble with Dai, the old stallion was the newest member of the counsel, the only member who hated him, and unfortionaly for Faunus, the only one available to speak with him when he returned.

"But Honorable sir," Faunus had to force himself to sound polite, "I don't understand what I did wrong."

Dai Gave him an ugly sneer, "If you can't see what you have done wrong then that human loving couple of yours hasn't been teaching you properly." That was Faunus's breaking point.

"Now listen here you old nag," he snarled, his tail swished back and forth angrily and he pawed at the earth with a foreleg, "You can try to get me in trouble with the other elders, but leave Firenze and Lilith out of it!"

Dai flinched back in surprise at his sudden outburst but quickly composed himself, "You have no right to speak to an elder this way, Farah will hear about your behavior!" the elder said in a shrill whinny, Dai turned and with suprising energy tried to take his head off with a well aimed kick (Faunus easily dogged it) before running back toward the old tree.

Faunus knew he had went too far with Dai, he may have been an annoying old thing, but he did have a high power position in the herd, and if it came to a Gather it would be his word aganst an elder, a leader, aganst a foal, an apprentice.

He winced, by defending Firenze and Lilith he may have gotten them in a worse situation, all apprentices misconducts were taken out on the Master, not the student. Faunus cursed his wild temper again.

But he didn't have time to curse himself, he had to get to Lilith and fast, if Dai was going to Farah then he needed support. Apprentices weren't allowed to defend themselves against an elder, only an adult was allowed to, normally he would have went to Firenze, but he was partially an outcast and, as much as Faunus hated it, he had no support among the elders, Lilith on the other hoof was one of the council members granddaughter, so she did have some pull.

As Faunus ran his thoughts quickly turned to another mare, Farah.

Farah was the head elder, her word was law, she was stern, stubborn (As a mule!) stuck to all the old laws, and could call a Gather if she wished to. Faunus hoped she didn't, at least not right away.

A Gather was when the whole herd was gathered to make a dission about a single centaur's actions, and a good portion of the herd was still wary about his living with them. Sure they accepted what the elders had decided about him when he was first brought to the herd, but still, who were they more likely to listen to if it came to a Gather? Faunus would most likely lose.

Most of the time the punishments were lenient, but Dai would spin Faunus's story to make it sound worse than it actually was. Faunus raced around to the side of the tree, there was a quicker way inside that only he knew about. It would take some quick transforming but with Yang's help it wouldn't be a problem.

"Yang!" The bird appeared with a black burst of cold flame and flew at the pace he was running, he gave a churp. "I don't have time to explain, I just need help getting into a form."

The bird trilled happily, "Yes I know I should change forms more often but I don't have time to talk about it now!" Faunus stoped abruptly.

"Ok Yang, Sparrow form." the bird gave him an annoyed sounding trill but started what Faunus called the transformation song, it was a sweet simple tune that almost sounded like the churping of small birds.

Faunus started to glow brightly, then he started to shrink, he watched in awe as the trees seemed to grow ten times their normal hight and how all of a sudden Yang seemed to be a giant.

He looked down which turned out to be a bad idea, the ground looked like it was rushing up at him, he let out an alarmed tweeting noise, but stoped at the sound of his own voice. He would give away were he was again!

He kept his beak closed as he felt his bones go hollow and his feathers sprout, brown, tan, and white with a few splashes of black across the head and neck.

He gave a small shudder, he hated transforming into small defenseless animals, but what could he do? Every time he turned into anything with teeth and claws he had to fight the unbelievable urge to kill something, he had almost made a fatal mistake in a leopard form he had tried out.

He fluffed his feathers out, no time to dwell on the past, he leaped and started flapping his tiny wings, Yang gave a trill and took off after him, there was a tunnel just big enough for a small bird, it led almost directly to his small home in the heart of the tree, the best area available.

Faunus flew into the small hole flapping his small, sturdy, wings as fast as he was able, it was somewhat hard without a breeze but it couldn't be helped. At first it was just a long tunnel but then it drooped off and Faunus let himself drop into a controlled dive. How he loved the rush!

His wings were flat aganst his sides, his beak pointed down into the dark, then the light of the tunnel suddenly appearing and the haste of opening his wings to make sure he wouldn't crash.

There was nothing like flying, Yang appeared in the tunnel right next to him, the black flame seemed to darken the way. Faunus quickly changed back but it was somewhat of a headrush being so big again so quickly, and he felt so heavy now!

He pushed open the piece of old bark that was the door, to the room and staggered in. It was a surprisingly well lit room with a large bit of root that shot out that had been formed into a table, a baisen, also made of part of the tree, held their collected drinking water. When they were done with the water, the tree just absorbed it, keeping it well watered and healthy, It was a very good system.

Lilith was in a side room with another moss curtain hanging off the top of the entrance. At the sound of his hoof beats Lilith turned and gave a high piched squeal.

"Faunus!" She ran over to him and squeezed him tighter then she ever had before.

"Lilith! Can't breath, have, problem!" he gasped out, Lilith loosened the hug but did not let him go.

"What is it Faun?" Faunus explained as fast as he could, dodging the questions about how he had gotten in the tree so fast, when he finished she looked like she would rip something apart, he was feeling nervous about being the only thing she had a hold of.

"I don't aprove of the way you handled Dai, but I do appreciate the way you defended us," she had momentarily softened, "And I'm proud of you for saving those humans, and fighting off those Werewolves." her eyes filled with hate again, "I need to see Farah right away," she let him go and headed toward the door, "You need to go find Firenze and tell him what going on."

Faunus nodded and walked out of the room after her, she went left, Faunus went right, or at least he acted like he was going to as soon as Lilith was out of sight he turned to Yang who was watching him closely from his perch on a makeshift shelf in the wall that held a glowing blue Will-o-Wisp lantern.

The bird gave a trill, and a small churp, "Yes I want you to spy on the meeting, make sure you're not seen." Yang glared at him, "Don't look at me like that!" the bird gave another trill this time he sounded angry, "I know you can't do anything that would hurt someone," Faunus said with a sigh, "But your just spying, no one would get hurt."

The birds featheres fluffed up but he didn't say anything for a minute, before giving a few chirps, Faunus frowned, he hadn't thought of that, "I see your point, but you won't be caught," the bird gave a slow trill, Faunus sighed, "No I don't want to take that risk, well then can you at least find Firenze and tell him whats going on for me, he is the only one besides me who can understand you," the bird trilled again in a scolding tone "I know its wrong but I really want to find out what they are going to do about the Werewolves."

'And about me.' He thought secretly, the bird eyed him with as much scorn as he could before disappearing in his black flame, well Faunus guessed he wouldn't get any help from Yang with his next transformation, he felt his whole body groan in protest as he prepared to transform, he never did more then one form a day for good reason, it always caused transforming back to hurt more, and more with every form.

Yang had told him that the pain would pass with time and practice, but Faunus didn't have the time, energy, or magic, to keep doing multiple transformations. He was going to feel this tommrow without Yangs help, and Faunus proably deserved it.

Once again he had to chose a small form, one that could defend its self . (just in case) as well as hide easily, after thinking about it he decided to chooses a form he realy hated, but he could controle its urges easyer than any other carnivore.

A Runespoor.

Faunus didn't have a problem with snakes normaly, he could talk to them as easily as if he was talking to another Centaur, so understood them better than most, they weren't monsters, just animals following their instincts.

But turning into one always made him cringe, for some reason he could turn into some snakes more easier than others, (Under the protective eye of Yang) and his best controle over a serpent form was, surprisingly, a Runespoor.

This form would be tricky without Yang to guide him, but he could do it. He went back through the door for more privacy and changed back into his human form, a scrawny, 5'6, strong boy of 13 years old, and lay down.

He had to use a lot more magic this time, and he had to focus it on the areas he wanted to transform first instead of relying on Yang to do it for him. He shut his eyes, he hated this part, he let the magic that he had held back go, he made his arms shrink and dissapear into his body first, he didn't see it, but he could feel it, and that was worse.

After that he felt his legs merge together into a tail and then get longer and longer, that was the tricky part, he also had to move his organs and change them to match the way the body was now, his spine was also a very disturbing thing to feel grow, he had to keep adding ribs and sections of spine. Disturbing.

He kept his eyes firmy shut, he didn't want to see what he looked like now. He added the scales next, bright orange with black stripes, it would make it more difficult to hide but in the dark of the underground cave it would be hard to spot it.

Now came the realy tricky part, changing his head while keeping controle of the transformation, he felt his body shrink, while that was happining he made his head change into the somewhat familiar shape of a serpents, he had to make quick adjustments for his brain, eyes, nose and tongue, his teath, fangs now, were pokeing uncomfortably into his jaw, he quickly made them retractable and gave a small sigh, hiss, of relief.

He felt some pressure on both sides of his neck and gave full controle to his magic, it knew what to do from here, and needed only slight direction from Faunus, twin heads and necks sprouted from the sides of his body completely identical, Faunus felt his mind split when the new heads came into form.

All three heads gave another sigh of releif when the transforming was done.

"_Well that went better than expected, I was sure that the stupid boy would screw it up for sure," _The right head hissed disstainfuly, the head on the far left turned and glared at the right head, _"Well if you havent forgotten it we are that stupid boy, and we need to get moving if we want to see that meeting, lets go now." _The right head gave a small snort but didn't argue.

The Planner made the body move out into the hallway and up the cracks in the tree that only a small animal could spot, and only a serpent could climb, moving up the wall was simple for the Planner as he slithered effortlessly through the cracks and creveses, this tounge flicked out to taste the air, no warm blooded creatures close but the sents of some passerby still lingered.

He caught the sent of a female centaur, healthy, young, and in good physical shape, another sent cought his attention, his own, it clung to the filly, this must be the direction they were to go in.

"_Pretty, pretty, lights." _The middle head whispered in a drowsy voice, _"What are you talking about you mouse-brained brained fool?" _the right head, the Critic, hissed, _"There are no-" _Both the Planner and the Critic's heads were filled with images of a blue flame in a jar, the beautiful bright blue light of the Will-o-Wisp, light blue streaks were running through it that glittered, it was very eye-catching, there were even whisps of purple mixed in.

The Planner forced his mind away from the Dreamers, the Critic reluctantly did also, the Dreamer gave a small sigh of sadness when he felt his two 'brothers' break away, he just wanted them to see the pretty light…

"_Lets just go! The sent is drifting away, hurry up you piece of dung, I could lead this body better than you could," _The Critic gave an angry hiss at the Planner, the Planner just glared at him before returning back to the mission at hand… or no hand…

He pondered what the correct saying was for a serpent, while he tracked Lilliths sent down into the cold of the caves, the Critic couldn't help but to comment, _"Who in their right mind would send a bunch of elderly nags down into the cold? If it was MY deicsion they would be in a much warmer place." _He grumbled to himself.

The Planner ignored him and ventured deeper into the cave, the sent was getting stronger now, and he could hear voices, how he could hear voices without ears he would never know. But he did.

"-Totally unacceptable, in my day elders were respected! Its his human blood, I always said it would come back to haunt us eventualy, and now it has, mark my words he will get worse-"

"All he did was defend his Mentor," an older voice rasped out, "Same as anyone would have done as an apprentice." he heard an angry snarl at the comment, the Planner moved closer to the edge of the opening of the cave.

"_Why in the world are you making us move across stone, its cutting my fragile skin! If I was in controle we would be sliding across some nice patch of sand right now instead of this stone!" _the Planner ignored him again although the urge to bite the Critic crossed his mind a few times.

The Critic kept his chattering up making it hard to hear what was being said, _"Will you shut up!" _The Planner hissed and made a lunge at him, the Critic leaned back in surprise causing all three to lean with him, the Dreamer tried to passify them with images of calm warm places but someone accidently slammed their head into the Dreamer causing him to get angry and get involved in the squabble.

But all three stopped when someone started shouting.

"I WILL NOT STAND HERE AND BE INSULTED BY MY OWN HERD!" all three heads turned toward the opening of the cave. What was going on?

Lilith's voice came next "Dai, we are not insulting you, we merely think that you are taking your hatred too far, think about what you are saying, now! Its crazy, we should be thinking of the werewolves in the forest, and the two humans in the Place of Peace. Not of sending young foals into exile."

"Those things do not matter!" Dai snarled, "What do those humans have to do with us, nothing, what do those Werewolves have to do with us, nothing! Only the herd matters, and that foal is growing into a danger, he got the wolves noses full of Centaur sent, so when in the next two nights come and wolves are invading the tree you will see that I am right! If we drive him out now he will take the wolves with him!"

There was the sound of angry stomping, and bellows of rage, it sounded like a bunch of wild horses fighting. Not the civilized way of the centaurs. The three heads had never heard anything like this before.

"Enough!" a loud commanding voice echoed through the tunnel, "I have heard all of your arguments for the foal, Faunus, and I am in agreement with Lilith, the foal has done nothing wrong, in fact, he may have strengthened our truce with the humans."

"What about the wolves?" Dai asked in a desperate tone, he was loosing the argument, and knew it, "What if they attack. It would be all his fault!"

"Do you honestly think a herd as large as ours could be bothered by pack that small, even without their human mind they know better than to attack a group this big." That was true, the Herd was about 80 strong, and they still had room for more.

"They are mindless beasts!" Dai snarled, "When they pick up the sent they will continue to go forward until they or their target is dead, you know this, the foal should be cast out to protect our own foals."

"_That old nag has a point," _The Critic hissed _"We could have brought the wolves directly to the rest of the herd." _The Planer turned to glare at the Critic, _"But we didn't, we made sure they couldn't find our sent by going through the Silver river, and deep into the Spiders territory so they wouldn't even think to go after us. There is no way they could find this place."_ The Critic grumbled for a while before quieting down, they had missed another part of the argument.

There was the sound of more wild whinnying and a thumping sound, and then sound of hoof beets, coming at a canter! Was the runner insane? With all the twists and turns in the tree and stone path one false move could permanently cripple them!

"_Quick! Get to higher ground we will be trampled if we stay down here!" _The Planner shouted to the other two, in their fight they had fallen to the floor instead of the safety of the wall they had been moving across.

All three strained to move as fast as they could to the wall, they had just climbed to the wall when the vibrations in the earth got to what felt like an earthquake to the serpents, the Dreamer panicked and let out a small cry of alarm when a gust of wind almost blew them over, as they clung to the wall.

"Should we send someone after him?" a new whispery voice asked,

"No, let him cool down, he has always had a terrible time with loosing an argument, he will see reason soon enough," The strong voice said, "Now back to what we will do with the humans, and the werewolves."

"I thought you said they wouldn't be a problem?" the raspy voice chimed in.

"They are not, but they are something we still should be wary of, left unattended they could be a problem, send out two warrior groups for the dawn patrol, tell them to keep an eye out for any sign of them."

"And the humans?" a gruff male voice asked, "What about them?"

"As I said before, Faunus's rescue of them will strengthen our truce with them, but I think we should send out an escort to make sure they get out safely, and to remind them that the forest is ours, we will not accept people in our home. We can't look weak in front of them." There was a murmur of agreement from everyone in the room.

"Now if there isn't anything else, I will call this meeting to a close,"

"_Lets go, there is nothing more we can learn, and they might spot us if we stay here."_ the Critic said taking the Planner by surprise, normaly he was so, well, critical. Is it possible he changed his ways?

As quietly as they could they sliped out of the long cold tunnel, _"Once again I ask, why put a bunch of old nags in the dark and cold! And on a bunch of stone! We will fell this for days, My scales have loosened! And I'm hungry, isn't there anything to eat in this dump!" _well so much for change. You could never change a Critic.

The Critic kept up his commentary until they were outside again, (using a new shortcut the Dreamer found,) and the first rays of the sun warmed their cold blooded body.

"_It could be warmer, but it will do." _The critic hissed, and stretched his neck out, the Dreamer agreed and stretched out as well.

"_We can't relax now, we have to turn back before we are caught out here." _The Dreamer sighed but agreed, it took a little longer for the Critic to agree, but he did and together they let themselves fade back into one person.

When Faunus felt himself come back together he gave a small sigh of relief, it was the oddest feeling in the world to be three seprate minds at the same time, and yet be a single creature when in the form.

At least Runespoor's were never lonely.

"Yang!" A black fire appeared in front of him and the annoyed bird appeared.

"Did you tell Firenze what was going on?" The bird gave him a 'What do you think?' look, even if he was angry with him he would obey Faunus's orders. The bird gave a quiet, grumpy sounding trill.

"Well no need to get so defensive!"

Another trill, "Look I will make it up to you later, but right now we need to find Lilith to let her 'tell' us what's going on." the bird flew to perch on his back but said nothing.

Harper trembled in furry, how dare that red haired, yellow toothed, silver eyed fiend do that to him! He winced as he held his head in his hands. He had almost forgotten the cut on his forehead. His back had taken all his attention up until that point.

He shut his eyes as his headache got worse, and the dull throbbing in his back started up again. Then a pounding noise started echoing in his ears, what in the world was it?

"Harper?" It was Kingsley, he was knocking on the door, Harper didn't answer.

Kingsley must have took his silence as in invitation, he opened the door and came right in.

"Come to yell at me? Well you're too late, Auror Teagan already did." (At least he thought she did) He grumbled and turned away from the man. His head was killing him! The throbbing in his back kept up with the pounding in his head.

He heard a sigh.

"I did not come to yell at you Harper, just to get a few facts strait, and Sara wont be able to get them from you in her current state," Harper shrugged and motioned to the spot next to him, he wasn't in the mood to argue with the man. If he wanted to hang around, fine. Kingsley sat and dug around for something in his pockets, Harper watched with some curiosity.

What was he doing?

Kingsley gave a small smile as he pulled out a potion vial, "Here we are," he turned to Harper, "Take this, it should heal you up nicely." Harper glared at Kingsley.

"If you hadn't forgotten, nothing magical is working for me right now, if I drink it I will just be tasting some foul water." Kingsley shook his head, "Don't worry they got your magic working again, the potion will do its job."

Harper took the vial filled with blue liquid and took a large swig of it, he felt almost instantly better. A small trickle of heat filled his veins. He smiled. It felt good to know his magic was back.

"Thank you, Kingsley," his face contorted it's self into a grimace, "I've been acting like a, greenhorn just out of Hogwarts, I apologize." Kingsley smiled and gave a deep chuckle, and Harper couldn't help but smile at the sound of it.

"It happens to the best of us, and I don't blame you for yelling after what you went through, now about what happened to get you in such a state…" Harper frowned. He did NOT want to be thinking about that right now, but Kingsley wouldn't leave until he gave him the story, Teagan would have made sure of that. He sighed, well he might as well get it over with.

"Right, that. Well I was looking for the prisoner down the VIP section….

_Flashback_

_Harper tensed as he heard the scrambling of something over the ragged stone underfoot, was it the prisoner? A furry nose poked around a corner twitching back and forth, cautiously the body attached to the nose followed._

_It was a greasy black rat, a fat greasy black rat. Harper gave a small sigh of relief, he was way too tense for his own good, and when did people make scratching noises?_

_The rat waddled forward slowly and had come halfway down the hallway when it noticed him. Its ears perked but otherwise it did not pay him the slightest bit of attention, it must be used to humans._

_He relaxed, he moved forward but kept an eye on the rodent, you could never be sure with a rat, it may look somewhat tame but they could be nasty little blood suckers when they wanted to be, Harper walked slowly and was almost past the rat when it froze._

_It had been grooming its whiskers but it just suddenly stopped, it went onto all four paws and started backing away, letting out harsh chittering noises, and a noise that sounded like a hiss. Harper frowned in confusion, the rat wasn't even looking at him, it was looking at something behind-_

_WACK!_

_Something hit his head knocking him down, something hard, he heard a clattering sound that could only be his wand, and the feeling of blood trickled down his forehead. He tried to stand up but he felt a sudden rush of magic fall over him, a stunner._

_Boney hands tugged at him and pulled him up, and skinny arms kept him up and slowly dragged him over toward one of the cells._

_It was halfway open. How could he have not noticed an open cell? Ced had told them that he had put the whole place on lockdown, so an open cell should have been an instant warning sign._

"_Don't worry, Auror," a harsh voice panted into his ear, the persons foul breath and body odor reached his nose then, he almost gagged, but the voice, so distorted by lack of speaking he couldn't tell if they were male or female, didn't seem to notice his reaction, it just continued on._

"_The pain isn't too bad, Bella didn't seem to mind it that much." the voice seemed to be clearing more as the person spoke, it was takeing on a more feminine quality, he had just been beaten by a girl._

_Pushing that thought away he started to wonder about that comment, what was all this talk about pain?_

"_You know what the chains do to you, Auror…" she reached into his pockets and pulled out his identification tag, all ministry personal were required to carry some form of identifaction on their person at all times, many of the senior Aurors never followed the rule, and now he was seeing why._

_The woman laughed an ugly laugh, "What a ridiculous first name! What kind of parents would curse a child that name! Well I will just call you Harper then shall I?" She dragged him further and further into the cell._

_A low moaning reached his ears, and Harper got a brief glimpse of a woman chained to the wall, she wasn't a very good looking woman, her hair matted and dirty and eyes shrunken into her head staring lifelessly out, well Harper guessed a few years in the VIP section of Azkaban would kill any persons looks._

_He was leaned aganst a wall, the arms released him, and he got the first look of the woman who had held him captive._

_She was in better shape than the woman chained to the wall, her red hair was long and only had a few snaggs in it, her eyes were a dull silvery color that seemed to swirl around, (where in the world had he seen those eyes before?) and her smile was slightly bitter, he saw her teath, yellow and dirty looking, it made him cringe._

_He could smell her foul breath again she was so close to him._

"_I must thank you Harper for giving me a wand to use, now I can get out of this place with no effort," she started grabbing chains that he just now noticed were behind him, "Do you know why the chains don't absorb my magic." Harper couldn't answer._

"_Well neither do I, but its been useful to have this ability, this luck," She leaned in as if about to kiss him, he cringed back and she smiled "This will hurt Auror Harper. I will enjoy your screaming."_

_She shut the chains around him, and then the pain started. It was like a muggle vacuum cleaner, it just started to suck and suck, at first his whole body felt like it was on fire, a fire that was moving in his veins, he could barly hold back his screams, the red haired demon just watched him impassively._

_He clenched his teeth, and shut his eyes, he would not give her the satisfaction of hearing him scream! He thrashed aganst the wall, the stone cutting cruely into his back, hot blood started leaking down the walls. Then, suddenly, he was cold, very cold, and a deep agony filled him._

_Like he had just lost everything he loved and cared about, like the sun had gone out and the world was pitch black, tears started pouring down his cheeks, he couldn't stop them, how could he? He didn't remember how to be happy._

_Harper opened his eyes, and she was there, the monster, the horrible monster who did this to him, his magic, gone, all gone, he felt a tiny fire flare up in his chest, but then the burning feeling came again and it was gone, cold, just cold. Not even the blood that poured down his back could warm him._

"_You didn't scream," The beast in a womans flesh said calmly, "I admit to being impressed, Auror Harper, very impressed," she tilted her head to the side, as if picking up some sound, "I must leave now, the rest are coming, we will meet again Auror." she reached out for him and gently caressed his cheek, he didn't have the strength to pull away, then, suddenly, she was gone, his wand in her hand._

"_Harper?" someone called out, someone he knew, Lauren? Was that Lauren? His head felt full and muttled, like he was on some sort of drug, or over tired. Across from him the black haired woman gave a small moan of pain. He idly wondered who she was. Another voice. _

"_Look, that doors open, be ready!" one of the team, he didn't remember his name, called out, the door was blasted in as a group of four rushed in, the first thing they saw was the woman, an Auror in front gave an ugly sneer._

"_Bellatrix Lestrange, can't say that I pity her," he turned, and saw Harper. His eyes widened, "Merlin!" he gasped out, the other three, two other men and Lauren, all turned to him, hidden in the shadows. Lauren let out a small wail of horror and tried to run over to him. One of the men had grabbed her shoulder._

"_Wait! It could be a trap!" Lauren shrugged his hand off._

"_Are you insane? How could anyone set a trap in a room this small!" She ran over to him and reached for the chains, Harper's eyes widened in horror, "No!" he said as loudly as he could, he internally winced at the sound of his own voice, it sounded dead._

_Lauren flinched and backed away, The leader of the group took a closer look at the chains, "Magic absorbers." Harper felt his magic flare again, desprate to stay in his body, this time he couldn't stop the scream that the absorbers caused as they ripped his magic away._

"_Someone get him out of there!" Lauren shouted. Harper started sobbing again._

_His back started hurting again, the fresh scabs had scratched off and the bleeding had started again. The world fadded in and out, he felt himself be taken down from the wall, the prisoners wailing had started up, the magic absorbers must have taken all their will to do so before. _

_But he didn't notice, he was suddenly in a white room, with his back throbbing painfully as a cold cloth was pressed to his skin. He recalled the Head Aurors voice yelling at him, asking him what happened, then black out…._

_End flashback_

"I woke up just a few minutes ago," he said, as he told his story his cheek had started burning as if the womans fingers were still touching him, Harper felt the desprate urge to shower, for hours.

Kingsley, who just sat there through the entire story without comment or question, suddenly spoke.

"The woman who did this to you, what do you know about her?" Harper looked over at the mans stern face.

"Nothing, why?" Kingsley shook his head.

"There is something strange about the way she was acting," he pulled out a file from another pocket, "All the records we have on her say she is a man hater, the fact she touched you in a way that could be taken for intrest is extremely out of character."

Kingsley passed the thick file over to Harper, "Normaly we wouldn't allow a regular Auror look at the prisoner files, but I think you deserve to be knowledgeable about this woman, she may come after you again." Harper opened the file, he glanced at the first page he came across there were pictures of injuries on various Aurors, all male.

In the corner of a few of the pictures was the word 'Deceased' he saw quickly scribbled sticky notes on her dueling stragity and her apearence, pictures of her sneered at him as they ran away.

It was very detailed, he turned to the front of the file to see who had put it together.

"Sirius Black? He made this file?" Kingsley nodded.

"He was the Auror assigned to her case at the time, did a great job before- well you know." Harper nodded. A sudden thought crossed his mind.

"Do you think they could have joined forces?"

"Black and Sparoehawk? Maybe, I think she respected him when he was an Auror so the thought of them joining together is a possibility," Kingsley frowned, "But if they were partners, why didn't they escape together?"

Kingsley shook his head, "I don't think they planed anything together, they wouldn't have been able to come up with a plan, and Black had been long gone when she escaped. I think it was conisidence." Harper nodded, well it was hunch. Another worrying thought grasped his mind.

Harper stood up a little shakily, and started pacing, he always did this when he was nervous "We have lost two VIP prisoners in two days," he mumbled, "One right after another, the press will be all over us, and the public will proably panic." Kingsley nodded.

"Sara and I spoke about this already, we will leave it to the Minister, let him calm the public with pretty words, distract them while we clean up this mess." Harper sat down again, his strength had finally left him, Sweat beaded on his forhead and his mussles trembled.

His magic flared again making him wince.

Kingsley carefuly put a hand on his shoulder, "Take a few days off to recover Harper, you look terrible," Harper nodded as kingsley guided him back into a laying position o nhis side, "Get some rest, some one from St. Mungos will be over to check you over soon and then you can go home."

Harper shut his eyes and darkness engulfed him once again.


End file.
